Support thread for house sellers

[Spirael]

Just what it says on the tin, really! I'm sure there must be other stressed house sellers out there? Hopefully we can band together and get some small joy of (hopefully?) seeing our houses sell so we can get a move on!

This is a thread of hand holding and mutual support for the EA dealings, weeks of silence, frantic house tidying, no-show viewings, silly offers and tough decisions. This is not for house bashing and price slating. There are plenty of other threads for that!

I've been trying to sell for a year now. Had a surge of viewings earlier in the summer making the right noises, but all has gone quiet for the last few weeks.

However, we have a viewing booked for later this afternoon from someone who has sold their house and is able to proceed - wanting to move before Christmas. Currently swinging between pessimistic and optimistic, while trying not to look at the house we want to buy!

Anyone else out there? :)

After the two viewings on Sat: first person liked the house but not 100% sure about the area, second couple liked the house but she wants to be nearer their current location.

This is the downside of using an EA who covers a wider area: they bring in people who aren't entirely sold on your location. But the last lot were too local & didn't seem to be able to get serious buyers in at all. Swings & roundabouts hey....

After getting the dishwasher fixed on Friday (3rd attempt!) my washing machine is playing up: went through the wash cycle ok but didn't spin. I think the dishwasher repair guy must have tampered with the washing machine pipes which go behind the dishwasher. Of course they are denying it and say it must be a coincidence. I am so fed up of stuff going wrong with the house when we're trying to sell - I don't want to pay any more money for repairs but I don't want to sell to someone knowing that things are a bit shonky. So frustrating!

I don't disbelieve you for a moment, Yellow Wellies, I just think the way in which these statistics are nonsensical, and it damages both buyers and sellers' confidence in the market if these spurious numbers are given too much credence.

House price indexes - all flawed statistically.

Buyer statistics - all flawed statistically.

I could give you a complex explanation as to why, but the simple fact that you've quoted two different figures, one of 37 and another of which suggests 40, and the fact that you're making a specific claim about self-funding buyers (something actually incredibly difficult to ratify or quantify, not least because these people are so rare in the market at the moment anyway) proves my point.

I do share your lack of optimism in the market, but not because there's a lack of buyers.

The way in which these statistics are compiled is nonsensical. Must learn to type, tsk.

Also 3 years is a lifetime in econometic modelling, and Santander's research department is neither impartial nor respected.

I too am a hoping to downsize like Toomuchtea but I wouldn't dream of viewing a house that I knew would not meet my requirements. I've had no viewings this weekend. I know that the viewers my husband showed round are now under offer but they never even bothered to give us feedback. The viewers who loved the house have put their house on the market but haven't been back in touch to say if they might be interested in looking again and the teacher hasn't bothered to rearrange a viewing! Can I also ask 1605 are you actually selling a house?

Earlier this year Clydesdale Bank said their average FTB was 30, though there were wide regional variations. The fact that Santander's (self-reporting) FTBs are 7 years older may have more to do with Santander's borrowing requirements than with the actual demographic breakdown across the market of prospective buyers.

Cuddy I am always buying and selling. I'm an interior designer but I have made most of my money from renovating and selling on every other year. This is the most perplexing market I've encountered in 15 years. I've seen houses taken off the market due to a lack of interest and houses sell for record ceiling prices on the same street.

There are two kinds of buyers, Cuddy. The kind who know exactly what they're looking for, and the ones who'll know "it" when they see "it".

Over the years I have been wrong more times than I care to admit about who will buy what and at what price. People are unpredictable animals and you have to allow for that and take frustration as part of the process, sadly.

I think I have to learn to expect the unexpected. It's very frustrating though. 1605 do you ever get attached to a property emotionally?

All the time.

I have never moved into a new house and not sobbed my heart out on the first night because I have done the wrong thing.

Yeah downsizing with 2 young teenagers and the dog, oh and husband. We currently have six bedrooms and realistically only need 4 smaller ones. I still need a r

Still need a room to use as a study and one for the gym equipment that I never get time to use due to manic cleaning! Don't really need a double garage either. Just want a smaller mortgage and more holidays!

Hope London people come good for you. I could just imagine you in a clown outfit trying to entertain their screaming children :)

Toomuchtea tea - that would be awesome!

You could have an open day with entertainment for the kids laid on! That would be one way to get the viewers in for a family house.

Hello...I have read the whole thread picking up lots of useful information.

I am hopefully about two weeks away from putting my fathers house on the market. He died in April without leaving a will and it has taken this long to get to the point in the legal process where we can market the house. (Scottish system)

Which is just as well really because his house would have made entertaining viewing on Kim & Aggie and also garden makeover!

His illness meant that he hoarded/stockpiled and also refused any help...in the year before he died he scared off numerous carers who tried to help in the house. He couldn't cope with change so all my late mothers belongings were where they had been when she died 5 years ago...right down to the glasses and handbag beside the bed.
The garden hadn't been touched in nearly 6 years other than the grass cut...the original patio area was hidden in overgrown leylandii which was taller than his 2 strorey house. We have filled a skip to over flowing, made dozens of trips to the tip with a trailer full of garden waste...and the piles don't seem to be diminshing!!
It took me 5 days to defrost his freezer - you could fit a toilet roll through a tiny hole in the solid wall of ice that stopped the freezer door closing!
It took me 4 days to clean his bathroom.

You get the picture.....at least because the house is empty once a room is tidied it stays tidy....thankfully.

The schedule is going to say in need of modernisation...it will need new kitchen and bathroom...and decorating.

I live in a rented house...have never bought/sold property...any advice you can give me would be great. Have told the estate agent (based in the solicitors office) that I want to be realistic about the price. The last thing I want is to have it on the market for months and months for the sake of a relatively small amount of money that I never expected anyway. Dad was about to move into nursing home before he died and house sale would have paid the fees.

Sorry this is so long!

I don't mean the house value is small amount of money!! I meant quibbling over say 10k...which would have to be split between siblings....not worth having the house on market for extra time for the sake of overpriced.

Ah Bentneck - it sounds as though you've have a bit of an emotional and draining time. I don't know anything about the Scottish system but there are some very helpful people on this thread who do. All the best and I hope you are able to sell quickly.

Oh I would have loved kids' entertainment laid on at viewings! Viewing houses with a two-year-old in tow has been a pain in the backside. We ended up taking turns to look round houses while the other entertained DS in the garden.

We've now had an offer accepted on the quirky house we had our eye on for a while, and it's all systems go with surveys/mortgage applications/fixtures and fittings forms etc etc. Our buyers had their survey done last week so fingers crossed all was OK.

Hi Bentneck we've just sold in Scotland (Orkney) and are relocating (initially into rented in Fife / Lothians) but have been keeping an eye on that market too. My advice would be to put it on no higher than the HIP valuation initially and if you get no interest drop it - lots of houses are being marketed at 10% below the HIP value at the moment and struggling to get a bite. It sounds like you're taking the right approach - you need to find out from the EA a realistic price that it will sell at quickly - not the highest peak price that any property on the street has ever fetched and that you might get if you had the house on the market for a decade! There is a price premium for selling quickly and to be honest for the stress it's saved us I don't regret not holding out for another couple of £k, we got more than we expected but that was simply luck that we managed to get a bidding war at closing - because our initial offers over price was low.

1605 I don't doubt what you say about Santander - dreadful company - if there is a cock up to be made, they will make it! Also inadvertantly helping prices to fall (and devaluing their own mortgage book) by chucking lots of folks off interest only mortgages and onto repayment mortgages which they can't afford - hence they're forcing lots of movement in the market at the moment up here, because those folks are selling low to get out quick because they simply can't afford the monthly repayments. I have to confess to not understanding why anyone would go interest only - it's basically a sign you can't afford to buy the house if you can't afford it on repayment.